Galion City Council passes electric rate increase

GALION — With one no vote, Galion City Council passed a Power Cost Adjustment (PCA) that will raise the cost of utilities in Galion.

The PCA will go up .0017 cents per kilowatt hour used per customer. The increase is the same for residential and business customers. The average rate increase in Galion is $1.14 cents per month. If you use less electric that average, the increase will be less. If you use a lot of electric, the cost increase willl go up accordingly. The average usage in Galion is 670 kilowatt hours per billing cycle.

That issues has been brought to council several times but after the third reading Tuesday evening — and passing by a 6-1 margin, with council member Jim Hedgest voting no — the rate increase was passed.

In other action, the council approved by a 7-0 vote an agreement with GovDeals, Inc., which operates the website www.govdeals.com to sell city merchandise that is not being used or is outdated. That property could include anything from vehicles to computer equipment to tools or old air conditioning units.

The administration will be responsible for choosing what items will be sold via online auction and writing up descriptions of the product govdeals.com will advertise the product on its website and will collect the money for the products, which may then be picked up through the city. The city will pay a fee of 12.5 percent per item sold to govdeals.com,

Mayor Tom O’Leary said some of the first items to go on the website will be vehicles no longer needed by the city. It is expected that inventory will be listed on the website before the end of the year.

Law Director Thomas Palmer said if the city is satisfied with govdeals.com, it will have to pass similar legislation each year to continue using the online auction site.

In other action, Council President Carl Watt congratulated Colonel Crawford High School senior Ken Fernandez who helped collect more huge amount of food in the past couple of months for food pantries in Crawford County and for hurricane relief.